the bronze berets
by DEADMANSHANDwin
Summary: when a young mans life is turned completely on it head he travels to a camp where he will meet new friends and have grand adventures. this is his story
1. Chapter 1

Rated M for vulgarity and violence

Crack! Snap! Pop! The sounds of the dead foliage breaking under my feet, as I run for what feels like is the fourth day in a row. All I know is I have had no sleep, no food, and no water for the last three days. The sky is still black so I'm not sure if this is still the third night or the forth morning. My name is Steven, Steven Remington (yes after the gun,) but you can call me Spades, at the moment I'm running for my life in some god forsaken woods in idontknowwhere, I'm running from what USED to be a MP back on my home base. Yes that's right, I said base. I'm an army brat, well technically an air force brat, but that is not the point. I was just minding my own business when a random MP comes out of nowhere and tries to kill me! I thought he was going for one of those "I'm sorry for your loss." With the hand on the shoulder, but instead his hand turns into a claw and he tries to give me a quick shave, head and all! Yesterday my father passed away, he was reported K.I.A. by his comrades during an op to secure a downed pilot; pilot is fine, a little shaken up, but she will be ok. So all day I've had people I've never met or heard of, telling how great of a man my father was and how he will be so sorely missed. For those of you civvies who haven't figured it out yet my father was in special operations, he was part of a group known as the "red berets" there officially however called Para Rescue Combat Controllers. Their job is to go behind enemy lines, and secure drop points, downed friendlies, and help aid ground troops. It's really dangerous, but my dad was one of the best. He trained me in a lot of the tactics he used to evade enemy troops; he taught me hand to hand combat, and almost every firearm under the sun. He trained me in wilderness survival to such a degree that I would have earned that merit badge five times over by now. I guess that's the only real reason I'm still alive at the moment, any normal person would have collapsed from exhaustion by now. Course I don't just give up like that, I've never been a good looser, guess I got that from my dad, because to him I guess loosing meant death. I have been trying to slow the thing that has been pursuing me down just like how my dad showed me, setting small inconvenient traps along the route I'm running. Doesn't really seem to be doing much however, the thing just sounds closer every minute. Eventually I know it will overtake me I can't keep this pace up for much longer, I mean for the record I have been running for three days now… or was it four? I don't remember, point is I dare anyone to match this. There is a small clearing up ahead, I can see a fire. People all way out here? No way. I guess this will have to the place of my last stand. As I break though the foliage there is this short guy with straggly hair, and a bunch of kids. "Shit!" I thought "there is no way I'm going to be able to stop myself in time!" I tried to yell for the short guy to move, but I wasn't quick enough and just ended up barreling him over.

"what the-" was all he had time for as 165lbs of muscle came careening into him, we both wound up going end over end for several feet. "Ow." I muttered as I sat up rubbing my forehead, for a short guy he made a pretty good wall if I had to say so. I looked up to see the stunned expressions of the kids, who were all dressed in these bright orange shirts that read "Camp Half-Blood" on the shirt. At that instant however I heard a rustling in the woods were I had just come from, and the soldier instantly snapped back to the front of my mind.

"You all need to run!" I screamed, but the kids still looked at me as if I had three heads. "You don't understand! There is this thing, and it's been chasing me! You all need to get out of here, there isn't any time left! LEAVE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, and at that particular moment, the monster decided to pounce from its concealment in the woods. I had none of my usual weapons, having left them back on base. So I grabbed the closest thing to me, which ended up being a stick from the fire. It would have to do, because with a mighty "ROAR!" the beast closed on me within seconds. At first I mistook it for a normal bear, but as it reared up onto its hind legs I noticed something off. It was wearing blue jeans, and I'm not talking about normal bear legs either. It looked from the waist down to be human. Except of the big hairy feet with massive claws in replacement of toe nails, from the waist up however it was all bear, his face had a snout, his mouth was full of yellowish canines, and his hands ended in the same long black claws his feet had. Just as the bear raised its hand/paw to take my head from my shoulders, a "hey!" rang out. We both stopped and looked at the short man who I had barreled over. Who was just now brushing himself off, his face was becoming redder then the beret my father used to wear. "Who do you think you are running into me without warning like that? Do you think you're too good for a _move out of the way?_ Or are you just racist against satyrs?" I couldn't believe it, here I am about to fight to the death with this man-bear and then I get called racist against… did he just say satyr? I then took eyes to where the man was brushing his, what I had originally thought were pants, only to see that he had goat legs. Someone must have slipped me something in my drink at the funeral because this is just one horrible acid trip.

"Look out!" came from behind me as I caught the paw of the man bear with the side of my face. "_Did_ _he just slap me?"_ I screamed in my head, I stumbled for a bit but remained standing, much to the man-bear's displeasure. My jaw felt like it was broken but I would have to deal with that later, I raised my stick as if it was a sword, I knew that I would have to hit a soft vulnerable spot, end this quickly. I didn't have enough energy left for a drawn out fight. I smiled as an evil plan formed in my head, and with a roar that made the man-bear's look like a squeak, I charged and drove my stick; square into the nuts of the man-bear. The man-bear groaned and buckled over onto all fours, and I drew the stick back to strike it in the eye when an arrow came from my left and pierced the man-bear's eye instead. The man-bear screamed in pain and then with no heed of where it was going, galloped off back into the woods. I looked to my left to see a girl with fire red hair, and a steely glare notching another arrow, this one I figured meant for me. I quickly dropped my stick and raised my hands in surrender.

"Whoa, there sister I'm a friendly! Don't shoot!"

She continued to stare at me with eyes colder then ice, but she at least aimed the bow down. Not much but it was progress,

"How did you find us?" demanded the girl in red hair. "What do you want? Who are you?" she re raised the bow and aimed it once again at my chest. "Answer the questions!" she hollered. Keeping my hands up, I answered as calmingly as I could. Not wanting an arrow to be sprouting from my chest after surviving my duel with Bear Grills. "My name is Steven Remington. I have been running through the woods for the last 3 days being chased by that thing, I saw your fire and just ran for the light, that's how I found you. I want, if anything just a place to sleep and something to eat without risk of dying." A younger girl of maybe six walked over to the girl with red hair and pulled on the bottom of her orange shirt.

"Sis, he doesn't look like a monster, just put the bow down, let's all sit and have dinner." The cold eyes of the red head looked down at the small girl and grew soft,

"Ok Sophie just go over there and sit with the others, I'll join you in a moment." Then the eyes hardened again, and locked back on to me. "Sit there and don't move." She commanded, I happily obliged for at that moment my legs gave out from under me, the last of my adrenalin gone. I finally felt all the cuts and scrapes I had across my body, my jaw aching with renewed vigor. I sat there exhausted, fighting just to stay concise; I refuse to fall asleep until I had something to eat. Finally the red head girl came back over with a bowl of stew, as she handed it to me she said "we decided you could stay with us for now, we are heading to a place that's safe from monsters like that, you can come if you want to."

I looked at her and winced as I tried to mutter a thank you threw the broken jaw. She just scowled and walked back to her group, who were all whispering, staring and pointing at me. I could see there was fear in their eyes, but also some curiosity. I faintly remember a person treating my wounds just as I passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up I don't know when after, at this point I had no idea what day it was. I looked around to gain some incite about my surroundings, the youngest girl; Sophie if I remember it correctly, was playing with a boy about the same age as her off to my left. The red head girl was nowhere to be seen and the goat man was watching the children. Two other boys about my age were sparring to the right, and a blonde girl was knitting something and humming to herself. She was the first one to notice I was up and beamed me a smile as she walked over.

"Hi!" she squeaked as she walked over to me. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she passed an inspecting eye over me "any pain?" she said as she poked my broken jaw.

"No." I said a bit surprised, I thought my jaw have been useless for at least a month after that hit, but as I put by hand to were the injury had been I didn't even feel any swelling. "How long was I out?" I inquired, there was no way my jaw healed overnight.

The girl started knitting again this time sitting next to me, "oh, a few days." She stated in a matter of fact tone, not even looking up from what she was knitting. As she finished I realized what she was knitting was a hat, she tied off the last string and yelled "Zack! Come over here your hat is ready!" with that the young boy came sprinting over and took the hat eagerly, putting it on immediately "thanks Daphne!" he squealed and ran back to Sophie to show off his freshly knit cap. "Hey Daph!" we turned to see the two boys who were sparring jogged over to where Daphne and I were sitting. "Do you think he would be up for some sparring? If we are going to travel with him we need to know what he is capable of."

"Ask him yourself." Daphne replied as she got up to go back to her original spot. I turned towards the two boys as they approached, one of them was younger then I am. Probably only fourteen, had black hair and a nose ring. The other reminded me of a jarhead, having a high and tight haircut, brown hair and built like a tank. "Hey kid, are you up for a bit of a sparring match?" I smiled, "Ya, but my name is Spades." Both boys looked at each other with confused expressions, "I thought you said last night that your name was Steven." Said the one with the nose ring. I then indulged them with my nickname's meaning "they used to call me Spades back on the base, because I would always win at cards, I used to sucker some of the other soldiers out of their pay on poker night." Both boys smiled and laughed "well this here is Dave and my name is Mike." The jarhead said with a southern twang. We all shook hands and then continued to spar. We spared for what seemed like forever our moves getting sloppier as time moved on and our bodies became sore. As dusk fell we decided to stop for the day. We all split off to gather fire wood while the satyr guy watched the kids. In about an hour we had a good size fire going. "Has any one seen Kat?" Dave asked.

"Not since she left this morning to go hunting." Daph answered. I looked around a bit puzzled as everyone sat around calmly "if you don't know where she is, then shouldn't we go after her?"

"No, big sister hates it when people interrupt her hunts." Sophie answered with a grin. "Don't worry though big sister always comes back!" she chirped loudly

"Yes, yes I do and I always bring gifts when I do!" a voice said from behind me.

I turned to see the Kat standing proudly with a string of squirrel, rabbit, and I think a duck, Slung over her shoulder. As she passed the animals around we all got to work skinning and deboning. We all proceeded to throw the meat into the stew we had boiling been boiling for the last hour. Watching everyone smiling and laughing reminded me of the camping trips my father used to bring me on, and unbidden tears started to roll down my face. "Yo man, are you all right?" Dave whispered trying to save me face. But it was too late everyone had seen the tears and now I let the flood gates open. I told them about how my dad had died recently and what had happened on the base. The all sat silently and listened, letting me get everything out. When I had calmed down the satyr guy whose name I still didn't know trotted over and placed a hand on my shoulder "hey look if there is anything back home that you want to go get we can go get it later right now though we need to get you all to camp. Get some rest we will be heading out early in the morning."

The next day we all had gear and food packed up and ready to move out, we walked north for what felt like an eternity, eventually the young ones started complaining loudly of boredom. And just when Kat was about to call a halt for the day, I told her to wait I had, had an idea.

"Hey kids! You want to learn a song?" both kids nodded eagerly "Now when I say left, your left foot is going to be on the ground ok?" I explain. They both nodded their heads eagerly, excited that they would have something to do for a time.

"OK!" they both yelled in unison. "Ok are you ready? Just repeat the words the way I sing them. Left, left, your left, right, left!"

"Left, left, your left, right, left!" two little voices squeaked behind me. We continued singing marching cadences for the next hour and a half before finally stopping to make camp. After that the days just blurred together, it was day after day of marching. During the journey I found out the satyr's name was Tom which seemed funny to me. Eventually we arrive at this hill with a massive tree, around the tree there was a golden goat fur and guarding that was a dragon! He was coiled right around the base of the tree, and stared at us with these pitch black irises. But Tom marched us up the hill without a single concern for the dragon. We all followed him, trusting that after all we had been through he wouldn't lead us to die now. We passed into a valley were we could see a bunch of strange looking cabins, in a massive U formation. We could see a giant coliseum and a tall climbing wall with lava pouring down it. There was also a big barn looking place, which we were heading straight for. "Welcome to camp half-blood." Stated Tom as we marched on, "that is the big house, there you will meet our camp counselor Dionysus, be respectful he might not be in a good mood." Tom warned us "I need to report back to the elders, you guys carry on without me; I'll hook up with you later." And with that we watched Tom gallop off into the woods. I looked upon the door and then to the faces of my comrades, "guess it's now or never." With that I opened the door and walked inside, followed closely by my friends.

Upon entry, we saw a man in a wheel chair sitting with a man in a Hawaiian shirt and drinking a diet coke. "Oh look! New arrivals!" the man in the wheel chair beamed. "I'm so glad you made it here safely."

"Yah, oh goodie," Grumbled the other man into his coke.

"Oh shush you." The man in the wheel chair hissed. "My name is Chiron; I'm your activities director and your trainer. Why don't we go upstairs and watch the orientation film?" at first I didn't understand how a man in a wheel chair was going to get upstairs, but then, as if by magic the man got up and started to walk towards the stairs, but that wasn't all. the man was half horse! "Seriously what is with this place and its half animal half people thing." I muttered under my breath. I didn't think anyone had heard me but I saw the man with the coke was snickering. We all then piled into a good sized office and Chiron turned on a TV. set. Sophie and Zach went ecstatic. Jumping onto Chiron's back and started chanting for him to put on Dora the Explorer, or SpongeBob. Chiron promised them he would, after they watched the movie and only if they were good. They immediately went silent and sat obediently. The movie lasted about 15mins; describing all the activities we would be learning, and doing. I couldn't wait for my first capture the flag game, it looked awesome. As I watched the video describe everything from archery, to monster slaying. I realized that there had been no guns; this made my soul shatter as I realized my skills as a rifleman and all the years my father spent training me didn't amount to crap here. After the film had ended Chiron trotted in front of us, "any questions?" he asked with a smile on his face. My hand shot up so quick that it startled Kat, "sir! I didn't see any firearms training, are there no guns here sir?" Chiron looked puzzled at the way my question had been sandwiched, which is the usual look I'm given by civvies. "No Steven, there are no firearms on the premises."

"Sir, is that because of issues procuring them, a legal problem, or is it just a moral problem sir?"

"Excuse me? I'm sorry Steven; we don't have guns here because we don't have enough celestial bronze to make enough bullets of the entire camp to have a sufficient amount. Also yes guns are very expensive not to mention it would look odd to people as to why a strawberry farm to buy a bunch of assault rifles. Does that answer your question?"

"Sir, yes it does, but now I have a new one sir." I said

"Ok, what is it?" Chiron answered.

"Sir, what is Celestial Bronze sir?"

"Celestial Bronze is a specially bless Bronze that has the unique ability to send monsters back to the underworld. Monsters are immortal just like the gods however, so they always reform eventually but it can take them years, sometimes centuries to do so." The rest of the day flew by, we met the kids of Hermes Cabin, and they were pretty cool. Until one of them tried to pick my pocket and I punched him out. After that a nice girl from Athena cabin gave us the full tour; she had blonde curly hair, storm gray eyes, a Yankees cap, and a bronze knife at her side. She said her name was Annabeth, and she was head of Athena cabin. From the way the other campers treated her I could tell she was some one of great authority, the way she carried herself and how the other campers moved out of the way. Finally we came to the Pegasus stables, where Annabeth explained how we would learn to ride one soon. Soon however wasn't soon enough because in my head an idea started to form. As darkness fell we all soon fell out for dinner. It was awesome, the drinks refilled themselves, and plates would be automatically replaced when cleared. Everyone looked like they were having a blast congratulating us on making it here, welcoming us to the family. I couldn't relax however, my plan slowly turning in my head, as quietly as I could I slipped out while everyone wasn't looking and ran to the Pegasus stable. When I got there I started saddling one of the Pegasus, which was not as easy as I thought it would be, especially since the Pegasus kept moving about. That's when I heard a "ahem" voiced from behind me. I turned quickly with my hands raised, ready to fight who ever had managed to discover me, but when I turned I saw nothing, only darkness. I started to put my fists down when I felt a blade press against my neck and a "nice reflexes" whispered into my ear. Seemingly out of no were Annabeth materialized out of the shadows, literally standing directly next to me. She smiled sweetly, but I knew enough about interrogation to know it was a facade. "Ok Steve that's your first strike, now please tell me what you think you are doing."

"I'm going to pay my final respects to my father." I stated flatly. I watched Annabeth's eyes grow soft.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize, but look Steven I can't just let you run off on your own unsupervised." She said as she sheathed her knife and proceeded to saddle a second Pegasus. "So what are you waiting for, let's go." I smiled and climbed onto my Pegasus, and then promptly fell off. Annabeth laughed at my predicament, and then eventually helped me get situated on the bird/horse. After what felt like an eternity we were finally underway, flying through the night sky faster than any small plane, the beat of the Pegasus' wings like thunder. I couldn't help it I look down at the ground as the world flashed by, night's darkness swallowing everything up. I couldn't make much out but I could spot my base from any direction, plus there felt like there was something calling me there. Soon I saw the check mark littered road that led to the base. I directed Annabeth to fly low in the tree tops in order to avoid the radar and the sentries. As soon as I saw that we were about to pass the main gate I directed her to land, when we landed I stopped and listened for a moment, to make sure that the personnel at the base had not detected us yet. I smiled when I didn't hear the tell-tale sound of boots hitting pavement. We sneaked towards the main gate. I heard Annabeth whisper "what are we doing? We could have just flown over the wall and into the main base, why are we going towards the gate were the guards will be posted?" I smiled and whispered back "call it a gamble." As we neared the guard shack, I saw the flickering of a television from the inside, and my smile grew to a Cheshire cat grin, I snuck up to the shack window and took a peek inside, I saw my dad's best friend Mike sitting watching TV. I rasped my knuckles on the glass, and with a mighty startled crash Mike hurled himself to his feet, and brought his rifle to bear. I stood there smiling, and as soon as mike saw it was me he threw down his rifle and encompassed me in a bear hug. "Spades! Oh my stars and stripes me and the boys have been looking everywhere for you! Why did you run off! And who is that!" he said pointing his figure at Annabeth. "It's ok Mike she's a friend, and I need your help." Mike put me down from his crushing death grip huge and started to frown, "ah I'd love to man, but you know I can't leave my post." I frowned, and then an idea popped into my head "hey mike do you still have that huge debt with Sergeant Lopez?" Mike's smile faded, "how did you know about that?" once again that Cheshire grin appeared on my face and I asked in hushed tones "how about I tell you how to beat him in the next poker night?" Mike's eyes grew wide as saucer plates as the seriousness of the situation unfolded in his head. "Um, ok Spades what do you need."

"Simple. Get me and Annabeth in where they are keeping my dad's body." Mike's face twisted as he started thinking. "Alright Spades you win again, they have your dad's body and all his personal stuff in hanger 6, but just say your goodbyes and then meet me at the motor pool, there is someone you should meet." He says and proceeds to call someone to cover the rest of his shift. Then at a double time Mike raced off towards the motor pool. "That was kind of cryptic." I said flatly as I led Annabeth towards the hanger. "Ya." She replied, her tone indicating she was deep in thought. She followed closely behind trying to look like she belonged there, of course that's kind of hard to do when you're wearing a bright orange t-shirt, we walked briskly into the hanger shutting the door behind us, and in the darkness I fumbled for the light switch. When I finally got the lights on I turned to see a black casket with an American flag draped over it. The flag's sides tucked neatly underneath the bottom in perfect hospital corners. It made me want to weep, I turned away in complete denial at what I was about to do. I walked over to the casket and with tears in my eyes I choked out as much of a goodbye as I could before my throat completely closed. I then got up and turned my back to the casket, even in death I could hear my father telling me "pick your tears up off the ground Steven, they will do no good there, now reach into your pocket and pull out your poker face, have a little military bearing. There you go, that's my boy." I then walked over to the white box that would contain my dad's personal items. Inside was his chrome 8" barrel, 50. Caliber S&W model 500 revolver and his lucky card deck. I took all of these and the holsters then shoved them in a duffel bag that had also been inside. Meanwhile Annabeth waited patiently with her back turned towards me, giving me my time alone. As soon as I gathered everything up I tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on" I said. "Motor pool is this way." I walked towards the exit, being sure to shut the lights off and leave everything the way I had found it. Well, except for the items I was taking. I wondered what the service men's expressions will be when they notice that some of my dad's stuff was missing. I hoped Mike didn't get in trouble; he had been my dad's best friend since boot camp, and he my Dad's best man at his wedding; he was the only person who knew what my mother was like. He was the only family I had left, I wondered to myself as we quick marched to the motor pool which thankfully wasn't that far from the hanger. When we entered I saw Mike talking to a tall beautiful woman in front of a supply truck, she was like a super model. With blond hair and full lips, a perfect figure, she wore this flowing pure white dress. She looked up from mike, seeing me and Annabeth, she flashed us a huge smile. "Steven! Oh my, you have grown so much! How have you been?" she cooed towards us, "And who is this? Is this your girlfriend? Oh, she is just lovely Stevie! A daughter of Athena also, good choice my son." She continued to prattle on and on. Asking pointless, endless questions, interrogating me over what had happened over how I had been. The questioning grew irritating and the worst was the fact that I couldn't place where I had seen this woman before. After a few minutes I couldn't stop myself. "Ok. Just hold for one second, who the hell are you?" the woman's face fell a little. "Ah yes, that's right, I suppose you wouldn't really remember me that well now would you, you were much too young when I had to leave." I stared at her with an expression of irritation and impatience, waiting for my answer. "Very well; my name is Nike, and I am your mother." I stared at her for a moment in disbelief, "your Nike, as in the Greek goddess of victory? And your claiming to be my mother?" I reiterated to her. She looked happily down at me, with an expression of pure motherly pride. "Exactly."

"Prove it." I stated coldly. Nike truly looked hurt from this, and Annabeth gasped. "Steve! How can you be so rude! That's your mother, why would she lie about that." I continued to hold the gaze of the woman who claimed to be my mother. Responding coldly "she has yet to prove that she is my mom. Also if she was my mother she would remember what the code word for all clear that she and my father would use to signal that it was ok for her to sneak over." Nike's expression warmed as she fell into a lucid memory. "Aces. I remember it like it was yesterday. Your father always loved to use cards for code words." Without hesitation I swept the goddess into a bear hug, burying my face into her shoulder. She gave a squeak of delight and hugged me back giving me a kiss on the top of my head. At that moment an alarm sounded from the hanger. Mike swore and looked at the transport, then back at me. "Spades, your mom and I put together a little good luck gift for you. We were hoping you be gone with it prior to the alarm going off, but that plan is out the window now. Here are the keys, go quickly don't stop for any reason and just get back to camp."

"Wait, how did you know about the ca…?"

"No time just go. Don't stop." With that Mike picked me and Annabeth up and threw us into the armor plated driver's compartment. I jammed the key into the ignition and started the diesel engine up. Mike opened the depot door and I hit the accelerator pedal. The M45's engine roared to life, and the massive wheels rolled forward. At first we met no resistance; however that was a grace that didn't last. As we neared the gates a platoon of my father's old comrades stood in our way. I could hear one of them shouting at me, ordering me to halt or be fired upon. I grabbed Annabeth's head and pulled her down below the window. "Hold on!" I screamed as we barreled forward. A few seconds after the pinging of bullets could be heard from inside the cabin. The truck shuddered as we smashed through the chain-link fence. I chanced a look out my review mirror just in time to see one of the soldiers level small cylindrical olive drab tube at us. "Ah shit that's an AT-4!" I exclaimed, yanking the wheel sideways. The truck responded by almost rolling over, as I righted it a small RPG flew past us detonating into a tree a couple of feet away. As we sped away I waited anxiously for the whooping sound of an Apache's rotor blades, but none ever came. The next few hours blurred together, both Annabeth and I constantly looking over our shoulders expecting to see the full force of the U.S. Army in hot pursuit. However, except for the initial escape, the ride passed uneventfully.


	3. Chapter 3

Hours later we pulled into the driveway to Delphi Strawberry Service, a lot of people wore confused expressions on their faces as they stared at the obviously military monstrosity that continued to drive around back behind the main building. Even before I had put the truck into park the passenger door flew open and a boy with black hair and sea green eyes stood in the door way. "Annabeth! Were the hell did you go? I have been looking all over the place for you!" Annabeth coolly slipped out of the seat into the boys arms, then gave him a gentle push, "relax seaweed brain; I was just helping Steve go pay his final respects to his father." The boy looked at the bullet holes in the doors and on the hood, "oh, is that all? Apparently there are fire fights at funerals now?" he said sarcastically. At this point I was getting bored of their banter and elected to see what the supposed "gift" Mike and my mother had left me. I hopped out and walked around to the back of the truck; when I hopped up into the bed, I saw exactly what I had hoped for. I smiled "thanks mom." I whispered to myself; in front of me stood ammo boxes, lots of them. All of different calibers and makes, on my left and right were wooden crates of varying size. I took the crowbar that was on top of one and started to open a crate. When the lid finally came off, it did so with a loud screech. I found myself starring at a variety of assault rifles all neatly packed together. I went to the box next to it, inside of that was a bunch of optics, fore grips and other kinds of modifications. I went to the box behind me that was larger than the others. When I finally wrestled the lid off, I couldn't believe my eyes. There sat a Barrette M82 .50 Caliber sniper system. When I moved the monster of a rifle out of the way I saw that underneath the Barrette, the box had been packed with other kinds of sniper rifles. I looked at the last four unopened boxes, and I was about to go over and open then to see what was in them when I heard an "Oh my gods!" from behind me. I turned and saw Kat, Dave and Mike all standing at the foot of the truck's bed with shocked expressions on their faces. "Spades what the hell is all this, and where did you go last night? We had the whole camp out looking for you." Said Kat with a concerned look on her face. I smiled, "I went to go get some supplies." I stated spreading my arms in a grand gesture. Kat looked at the boxes of ammo, and the crates of guns. "Holy shit Spades where did you get all these?"

"Well apparently I'm the son of Nike, and this is her way of making up for all the birthdays and Christmases she has missed." Laughing I went back to opening the boxes, then Dave asked "yo man, do you need any help?" I turned and threw him the crowbar.

"Ya, here, get to work on opening the last few crates." I stated while walking over to one of the ammo boxes. It was labeled .500 S&W Magnum. I opened my Dad's duffel bag and brought out the ungodly Revolver. Opening the ammo box I withdrew five of the rounds inside. Looking at them I noticed the bullets were a different color than usual. Instead of the orangey shine of copper these bullets had a deeper, browner metallic to them. From behind me again I heard a gasp. Turning I saw that Chiron, Annabeth and the green eyed kid stood with Kat and Mike. All had their mouths agape, but Chiron was the first to recover. "Steven what is the meaning of this! Where did you get all these weapons? Please hand me one of those bullets." Complying I handed Chiron one of the five rounds I had in my hand. Annabeth finally had regained her cognitive senses and said in a shocked voice "Chiron, are those what I think they are?"

"I do believe they are child; tell me Steven do you know what this is?" I looked at him as if he was an idiot. "Uh, a bullet?" I said smartly. He glared at me. "These are Celestial Bronze bullets; Celestial Bronze is the only metal that can harm creatures of myth. Normal weapons will only annoy or won't affect monsters."


End file.
